Sunday, June 25, 2017

Tom and I arrived in downtown Cincinnati just as the Cincinnati Gay Pride Parade was beginning. It was Saturday, June 24 and the weather was perfect ... sunny skies and a temperature at the start in the 60's. That's a little unusual for "almost July" but the day proved to be perfect from beginning to end.

After the parade the festivities moved to Sawer Point on the river. This link will provide details.

Whenever we visit the Cincinnati Art Museum, there's always one painting I want to see. Again and again. Nothing else comes close. Vincent van Gogh's Undergrowth with Two Figures.

Others agree. It's the most popular piece in the museum's 67,000 piece collection.

Painted in late June 1890, van Gogh had just left the asylum at Saint-Remy and was in Auvers-sur-Oise, a small village just north of Paris. van Gogh died on July 29 so this painting dates to the last month of his life.

On June 30, van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo and mentioned this painting. "The trunks of the violet poplars cross the landscape perpendicularly like columns," he wrote. "The depth of Sous Bois is blue, and under the big trunks the grass blooms with flowers in white, rose, yellow and green."

The colors - as always - are what most attracts me to this painting. Who would chose blue? Who would select pink? I know nothing about art beyond what I like. If van Gogh painted it, I like it.

While Tom and I enjoyed this painting there wasn't another soul in the small room. To be alone with a van Gogh is thrilling, as though the artist was still at his easel applying the thick brush strokes. I leaned in close and took his macro ...

It was given as a bequest of Mary E. Johnston in 1967. It measures 19 1/2 x 39 1/4.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Tom and I had just arrived at the Cincinnati Art Museum about noon (Saturday, June 3) and I had climbed the steps in front of him and turned around to watch him approach. While standing there a few seconds I looked out over Cincinnati and saw a fairly bright white dot floating high above the city.

The dot appeared not to be moving at all so my attention was drawn to it. This is what I first saw:

The dot is hard to see in this shot because it is so far away and so tiny. I pointed it out to Tom. "Maybe it's a drone," he said. [Click on the picture to see a larger size]

We were looking west and the object continued towards us (and on a track that would take it north of us). As it got closer I could see movement ... it appeared to be tumbling. Here's my first telephoto shot trying to get a closer look:

It clearly was not an airplane - and not a drone, either. Though it continued on a steady path, I could see movement of the object itself. It appeared to "flutter"; no, it was not a bird. In person I could see it clearly enough to know that it was irregularly-shaped.

It got closer and closer and I pushed all the telephoto into the camera that I had. The object could be seen to be elongated.

You can see in this final shot that it is of an irregular shape. My best guess it that it was a plastic bag of some sort. Perhaps a dry cleaner's bag? You can also see in these final two pictures that it has turned around (the "tail" has switched ends).

Clearly this is not the arrival of aliens but more likely the airborne arrival of trash. But what could possibly have sent it so high? Was it filled with helium, or even hot air and launched purposely from somewhere? The air was almost calm and warm (mid-80's). There wasn't a cloud in the sky.

With Tom now beside me on the top step of the Cincinnati Art Museum, we watched the object begin to pass just north. When we turned our attention elsewhere and looked back, it was gone. There wasn't a sign of it anywhere.